Toys!

Only my OT friends will really appreciate this post but I thought I'd share with everyone because I'm just so excited about it. I'm always looking for fun toys that I can use at school with my kids to make working on fine motor skills fun and interesting. However, toys are expensive so I'm always looking for cheap options!

My mom found this awesome consignment toy store out near the lake. I think it's an old gas station converted into a store. It doesn't look like much on the outside, but it is filled with all sorts of treasures!



I found a Lite Brite! I've been hoping to find one of these and this was only $7. You can't beat that :)



I also found these fun puzzle building blocks...I apologize for the terrible picture.



They also had all these Vintage Fisher Price toys. I didn't purchase any of these but I remember playing with some of them (Mom - not sure if we owned them or what but how fun).





Tomorrow is the last day of school - how exciting! I can't believe it's here already. I'm looking forward to a little change of pace working more days closer to home for a while. I'm also looking forward to all of our visitors coming up in the next few weeks!

On a different note I have a little garden update...Deer jumped the fence and ate the tops off all of our beans! Ug. They only went for the beans...my aunt says they are the most "tender." The other plants still seem to be doing well :)

Garden Update!

The garden is coming along beautifully. The one good thing about the rainy weather we've had lately is that I don't have to do any watering! The garden fairy (aka my aunt) came and pulled all the weeds last week so it's looking great.

The zinnias are coming up...some insect is eating them but they're still hanging in there.





Sunflowers



Tomatoes!





A baby tomato coming already :)



Squash



I saved my favorite for last - BEANS!

Another weekend...

Another weekend spent in Vermont - I still can't believe we live here now! We had a great time and were excited to spend lots of time with my cousin now that she's finally in town for good :)

Friday night we went to the Jazz Festival



The weather was amazing so lots of people were downtown enjoying the free music and eating outdoors.



Including us...



The "Cows Come Home" event has been going on for a while downtown. The purpose is to increase tourism for the town and generate revenue for area businesses. Different businesses sponsor cows and decorate them to place around downtown. It was big news a few weeks ago when a couple of teenagers decided to go cow tipping one night :) They were prosecuted. Oh my! Guess they know better now.

This one was Matt's favorite but he was too embarrassed to pose in front of it.



Saturday was gray and rainy (again!) so we hung out at home and then headed to the lake later in the day. I checked on the garden (progress update coming soon!) and then cleaned the house in preparation for Mom's arrival on Tuesday! My aunt and cousin joined us for dinner Saturday night :)

Today was another GORGEOUS day. As my mom says "A perfect 10." 78 and sunny - amazing. We spent the day at the lake (and even went swimming - brrr) and it was almost impossible to tear ourselves away to come home. At least Willow and I are headed back Tuesday night :)

Biking

Matt and I took our first road biking adventure last night. I put on my biking outfit - check it out...



Don't worry, I wore a helmet too but didn't have it on yet. I need to invest in some shoes but don't feel like spending the money on them at this point.

We rode 13.1 miles and it was great! I was SLOW - road biking is harder than it looks! At the beginning of the ride, Matt told me he'd like to set a "beginner" pace of 18 mph. We were going 10 mph and I was already tired. Oh my. I tried my hardest but lagged behind most of the ride. He told me part of the reason I was slower than him was because I did too much sightseeing - we rode by all these beautiful lake views so how could I help myself?!

I spent a lot of the ride trying to figure out how to change the gears and feeling thankful that I bought padded biking pants. That bike seat is narrow and HARD! My arms were sore afterwards (something I didn't expect) but not my butt :)

On another note, the Jazz Festival is going on downtown this week and we're headed down there tonight! Should be exciting...

Rhubarb...

So I mentioned that I cut my rhubarb this weekend. I went out there with a pair of kitchen scissors and hacked away at the HUGE bushy plant. Here is a reminder picture of what it looked like...Keep in mind these pics were taken in late April so the plant was about 5x that size by the time I cut it. I forgot to take a recent pic...





I don't have much experience with rhubarb. I don't really know what to do with it. My mom told me the leaves can't be eaten, so I cut those off and put them in the compost pile. After I cut all the stalks down, I looked on the internet on how to store them. It was then that I read you should only "harvest" 2/3 of the plant at one time and snap it off rather than cut it. Oops. Oh well, hopefully the plant will come back next year.

Rhubarb looks kinda like huge stalks of celery, only some of them are red. I read on the internet that the stalks turn red in cold climates. Most of mine were red. Guess that gives a good indication of what winter is like! Brrr.

Mine looked like this...



This isn't my picture - but some of my leaves were this big too! Crazy....



My grandmother loves rhubarb, so I put most of my stalks in plastic bags in the fridge to save for her. I decided to try and make at least one thing so I could say I tried :) I found this recipe on the internet and picked it because it looked the easiest!

Rhubarb Bars

Ingredients:

Crust:

1 1/3 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2/3 cup butter or margarine

Filling:

2 cups sugar
1/3 cup flour
2 eggs
3 cups finely chopped rhubarb

Procedure:
•Mix the crust ingredients like a pie crust and pat into a 9x13 inch cake pan.
•Mix the filling ingredients well, spoon into crust and bake 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

I ended up cooking mine waaay longer than 45 mins (I think at least 60, maybe even longer), but I used a casserole dish rather a cake pan because I didn't have that size pan. Here is the finished product.



By the time it was finally finished cooking, I was already full from dinner (and ice cream). The website did say it should be served warm, but I tried some today cold from the refrigerator. I kept thinking as I made the recipe, "this sure seems like a lot of sugar." It tasted that way too...It wasn't my favorite, but I'm going to give it another chance one time heated back up :)

Fun new things!

This weekend was supposed to be gray and rainy so we decided to hang out around the house and get some stuff done. Matt spent Saturday learning how to build mountain bike trails and networking with other bike enthusiasts while I stayed home with the nug and tackled my to-do list. Matt was pumped because he came home with a free water bottle so we were both happy :)

I started by cutting the peonies blooming in our yard - gorgeous!









I also cut my rhubarb....finally. It was huge and flowering in the back yard so I figured it was time. I did make something with it today that is in the oven, so I'm interested to see how it turns out.

My mom saw an idea in one of her magazines where a woman put silverware in her sugar mold. I have one and I'm always looking for a way to change it up so I decided to go try to find some. I went to the cutest antique store in Essex Junction, VT and hit the jackpot. I didn't get a deal.....but I did find exactly what I was looking for! It doesn't make a huge statement but it's a good alternative to flowers.



I finally hung the hammock my mom brought up from VA a few weeks ago! It's heavenly out there and not too many bugs yet. Saturday ended up being nice so I had the chance to sit in it a little bit :)



I saved the best for last. I made a big purchase - unusual for me I know to make a decision this quickly. Matt has started road biking lately and I thought it'd be fun to join him. One problem - road bikes are expensive - I mean really expensive. I just wasn't going to commit to that. Luckily, Matt did some research and found the Old Spokes Home. This place is the coolest bike shop ever. They have all these awesome antique bikes hanging everywhere and they sell used road bikes!



One other good thing. I have a mountain bike that I bought when we lived out west like 5 years ago. I had many miles of enjoyment on that bike but I never ride it anymore.





Matt thought the Old Spokes people would give me like $50 for it. I refused to let it go for that price! He scoffed at the idea of selling it on Craigslist but I insisted. I posted the bike up for sale and had 5 emails within 2 hours. HA. I sold it for $175 :) I enjoy saying told you so way too much but Matt is good natured about it!

I went Saturday to purchase my road bike! Here she is - what a beauty.



I also used a gift certificate I received at Christmas (thank you John and Cynde!) to buy my road biking "outfit." Matt approved. He was insistent that I look cool and not like a "gaper." As soon as the weather is nice enough to go for a ride, I'll take a picture of myself so you can decide what you think. Meg - I know you're skeptical :)

Today was rainy and cold so Matt spent some time relaxing and watching TV. Willow is allowed on the couch at the lake when it's covered with a quilt. Here is how I found them.





I guess they forgot about the quilt :) Sorry Mom!

Hope you had a fun weekend! Back to work - only 2 weeks left of school!

No More Texting and Driving....

It's now illegal to Text and Drive in Vermont. I've always tried not to but now there's extra incentive! It's also illegal for anyone under 18 to use a cell phone in the car at all. I think it's awesome but I'm glad it wasn't a law when I was 16. At least I have a bluetooth in the car now in case they decide to go the extra step and ban all cell phone use for us older people as well....What else would I do on my 45 minute commute?

On another note, last week I made three delicious recipes from Cooking Light that are worth trying! I usually give up because they take too long but these were amazingly easy.

Grilled Polenta with Spicy Steak (I substituted Cous Cous for Polenta because the Price Chopper didn't carry the fancy polenta in the tube)

Walnut and Rosemary Oven Fried Chicken

Summer Vegetable Frittata